Two proponents of software-defined networking (SDN) told ChannelCon attendees that the emerging architecture is the answer to the growing need for cost-effective, high-availability, high-bandwidth networks to keep pace with today's application demands.
“Why do we need SDN?” asked Todd Hopkins, vice president, product development, Certification Partners. “The Internet is changing; with increased bandwidth needs, changing traffic patterns and changing consumer needs.”
Hopkins and Patrick Lane, an IT author, consultant and instructor, were the featured presenters during the final session of the ChannelCon Track4Techs. The first-time program offered educational content designed for the specific needs and interest of IT technicians.
Traditional networks struggle with the proliferation of operating systems, devices, platforms and applications that are so prevalent today, according to Hopkins.
“Years ago we were a local company needing to connect 10 or 15 employees into an email server and out to our ISP,” he said of Certification Partners’ experience. “Today we have a number of different environments we need to bring together. Everybody’s on a different OS; everybody’s on a different device. Every time you add a new platform, you face challenges in connecting them.”
Lane admitted that SDN is abstract “and it’s hard to define something that is abstract.” But he offered the following description: A computer networking architecture intended to simplify the management of network services.
A software-defined network has three tiers:
- An application plane at the top.
- A control plane in the middle to determines traffic paths.
- A data plane at the bottom to forward packets to their destination.
“It allows you to think more about applications and the network as a whole,” Lane explained. “It is software taking over jobs previously done by hardware.”
“The amount of time you need to spend making your systems work together will be reduced significantly,” Hopkins said. “This is going to improve what we can provide to our customers and allow them to have a better and easier experience.”
Organizations that have shifted to SDN have experienced improved network performance and efficiency; simplified network operations; and cost savings on operations and equipment.
Hopkins cited a July 2014 survey by Juniper Networks of 400 IT decision makers said. Just over half (52.5 percent) plan to implement SDN; 30 percent within one month, and 70 percent within one year.
Several prominent organizations are using SDN today, including Cloudwatt, a French private and public cloud provider; RackspaceCloud; NEC (deployed in a hospital setting); Google (in an interdata center WAN), AT&T and IBM (for secure cloud services); and NTT Communications (enterprise cloud services).
Hopkins said there are upfront costs to make the transition, “but it gets offset in your ROI in the future.”
Both speakers said the bigger challenge will be to develop SDN skills — especially programing and web development talents — in the IT workforce.
Steven Ostrowski is CompTIA’s director of corporate communications.
